


Technicolor Meal

by TerresDeBrume



Series: In which Asgard and Jotunheim are at (relative) peace [1]
Category: The Avengers (2012), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alien Culture, Culture Shock, Food, Gen, Jotun Food, Jotunn!Loki
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-24
Updated: 2012-03-24
Packaged: 2017-11-02 11:20:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/368420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TerresDeBrume/pseuds/TerresDeBrume
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The food looks beautiful. Really, it does. Too bad the taste doesn't follow.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Technicolor Meal

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a prompt from deykae on Tumblr: what do Jotuns eat, anyway?  
> I derived a bit, but I had fuin writing this so. Hope you'll enjoy :)

To be quite honest, they’ve never really wondered what it was that Frost Giants ate.

 

First, they never really had to, being that Loki was their enemy for a long, long time, and even after, he seemed quite satisfied with whatever human food they gave him -in fact, there were even some instances where he made them wonder if Thor was really the one with the biggest appetite… yeah, it was  _that_  impressive.

But then there’s been this weird encounter with Doom and a blue bottle taken from Loki’s former lab of vilainy. There was the sound of the trickster screaming something like ‘not that one you  _idiot_!’ and then, Tony remembers a big cloud of blue smoke and the fiercest cold he’s ever felt.

They all thought they were going to die, until a tall blue guy with a loincloth ornate with emeralds and sapphire found them, tall and proud and black haired… not unlike someone else they know, actually.

 

Long story short, it appears they fell into an alternate dimension - _again_  some would say- where Asgard  _lost_  the war against Frost Giants. So now here they are, seated at a table made of ice, in a palace made of ice, in the middle of a planet that, as far as Tony has seen, is entirely made of ice.

(They’re also freezing their balls off, except for Loki, who turned into a smurf and looks more misty-eyed at not being the different one, for once, than chilled to the bone. Tony keeps their fingers carefully locked together, just in case Loki feels like crying.)

 

“We have to celebrate this instance,” other Loki said after they’d explained their situation -he’s much taller and bigger than their Loki is, but just as slender and fast as his counterpart. “It’s not everyday that I meet another me, and you look horribly underfed.”

 

And so they watch the plates and vases being brought to the table while other Loki laughes with his brothers, tries to include Loki and Thor and the Avengers in the conversation, because apparently Asgard isn’t an enemy anymore, here.

After a while, everything is on the table, and the protective lids are removed, and Tony gapes.

 

Huge mounds of glowing moss, leaves so pale they’re transparent, flowers with petals so blue they could pass for saphires. There are spongy-looking spheres that glow green, and milky-pink roots that look like fingers, and just about every shape and variety of plants you could imagine.

There’s meat, too, or fish if you want to be exact: translucid, still glowing jellyfish-like creatures with long tentacles that shiver at the slightest breath, and Tony  _would_  hesitate between wonder and disgust if he hadn’t realized that everything is  _raw._

 

“Uh… Nice starters,” he says after a quick look at the other confirmed that they all look a bit queasy, and other Loki looks at him with a puzzled face:

“Starters? These aren’t starters. It’s the full meal.”

 

Tony hears Loki give a little ‘oh’ of surprise, and there’s more than one anxious gulp on his right, but hey, it’s not like they’re in a position to refuse, right? So he piles a bit of everything in his plate -studiously avoiding anything that glows, though- mutters a quick prayer to whatever is or isn’t out there, and bites into the first bit of fish.

 

It. Is.  _Disgusting._

The thing is chewy as hell, kind of like an old shoe, and having his teeth  _bounce_  on his food isn’t something Tony’s really fond of. Plus, the taste in itself is really strong, kind of like that moment where your vegetables get just past ‘good’ and just before ‘rotten’, and ew, really,  _ew_.

The others on his right seem to be thinking along the same lines, because even  _Thor_  has set his fork down. Tony turns to his left, ready to comfort Loki… except there’s nobody to comfort.

 

In fact, Loki is currently munching on one of the glowing-purple jellyfishes with obvious delight, grunting and sighing like he’s never eaten anything that good  _ever_ , and Tony figures, after all, it makes sense. This is the food his body has been craving for milleniums, and it’s not surprising he reacts to it that way… that doesn’t make Tony any more hungry though.

 

“Not so fast!” Other Loki laughs, “Not so fast, little one, there will be many more feasts to come.”

“But I can’t access these in my homeworld,” Loki says once he’s gulped down the bright green drink they were provided with. “I’d rather enjoy them all while I can.”

 

Other Loki nods, understanding, and they go back to their meal.

 

When the two Lokis find a way to send the Avengers to their home-dimension a few weeks later, they’ve all lost a lot of weight, except for Loki, who looks healthier than before, and whose Jotun form gained at least ten inches since they came here -his Asgardian appearance remains mostly unchanged, aside from a silhouette that has gone from skinny to just slender.

They go back to the shared penthouse, back to protecting the earth, and Loki sends an enormous gift basket to Doom, as a thank you for the opportunity, however accidental it was.

 

“I’m really glad you found food that suits you,” Tony says a few nights later, after he and Loki lie back down on their bed, sweaty and tired, “but really, did you  _have_  to put the aquariums in the bedroom?”

“What?” Loki says, looking at Tony with his chin propped up on his hand, the other trailing Tony’s stomach as their skin glow purple and green and blue and white with the light emitted by Loki’s brand new food reserves, “Can’t I wish to see you no matter the time of day?”

 

And, well, it’s not like Tony can answer what he really thinks about the things after that, so he just does his best to ignore the twelve-tentacled squidd tapping on the glass on his right, grunts a little, and buries his face in the crook of Loki’s neck to try and go back to sleep.

 

(The squid makes popping sounds against the glass.)


End file.
